Maruti Suzuki Alto most dependable compact car: JD Power

Vehicles in India are operated under a variety of road and weather conditions that lead to varying degrees of quality deterioration which affects overall owner satisfaction and word-of-mouth recommendations.ETAuto | Updated: July 22, 2016, 17:05 IST

NEW DELHI: Long-term vehicle dependability in India improves as nearly half of all car owners indicate not experiencing any problems with their vehicle, according to JD Power 2016 India Vehicle Dependability Study (VDS).

The study measures problems experienced by original owners of 2.5 - 3.5-year-old vehicles with overall dependability based on the number of problems reported per 100 vehicles (PP100), with a lower score reflecting higher long-term vehicle quality.

Overall vehicle dependability has made steady gains over the last three years with total reported problems standing at 185 PP100 in 2016, improving from 206 PP100 in 2015 and 218 in 2014.

The study also finds that while diesel vehicles continue to have more problems than petrol vehicles, the gap between them has narrowed marginally year over year, to 27 PP100 in 2016 from 29 PP100 in 2015. But more significant is the rate at which diesel vehicles are outpacing petrol vehicles in minimizing the occurrence of unexpected repairs. The incidence of unexpected repairs for diesel vehicles has decreased to 29 percent in 2016 from 41 percent in 2014, while the incidence for petrol vehicles has fallen to 25% in 2016 from 35% in 2014. "Continuous improvements in vehicle quality are leading to fewer build quality issues and therefore fewer unexpected repairs in the first 2.5 to 3.5 years of a vehicle's life," said Mohit Arora, executive director at JD Power, Singapore. "Over the last few years diesel passenger cars have improved tremendously, as fewer owners are reporting quality issues with their vehicle than they were a decade ago."

Among the nine problem categories that encompass overall long-term vehicle dependability, driving experience accounts for more than 20 percent of all problems reported by owners.

"Vehicles in India are operated under a variety of road and weather conditions that lead to varying degrees of quality deterioration which affects overall owner satisfaction and word-of-mouth recommendations," said Shantanu Nandi Majumdar, director at JD Power, Singapore. "It is therefore important for manufacturers to understand and minimize this fact by designing products to not only achieve high levels of initial quality but also attain higher levels of longer-term reliability and durability."

Owners of newly launched models at the time of purchase report 40 PP100 fewer than owners of models that had been available in the market in the previous years. The largest differences in the number of problems reported are in the vehicle exterior, engine and driving experience categories.